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The Frick Collection – NYC

While in New York City it is almost essential that one visit an art museum. It is more or less a NYC ‘rite of passage’. With over 45 art museums in NYC there is something for everyone. The most well-known museums, The MoMa, The Met and The Guggenheim are often the first choice for a visitor. But NYC has so many more and often unknown art museums. There is the MoCCa (Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art), the MAD (Museum of Arts and Design), the MOBIA (Museum of Biblical Art), and the Brooklyn Museum (the second-largest art museum in NYC!). The art museum I chose to visit on this trip to NYC was The Frick Collection located in Manhattan. As my time was limited (so many things to do!!), The Frick was a smaller venue. The Frick Collection is housed in the former residence of American industrialist and financier, Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919). Henry Frick was once known by his critics as “the most hated man in America” and the “Worst American CEO of all time” due to his lack of morality and ruthlessness in business. There was even an attempted assassination on his life in revenge for his immorality. Frick was an avid art collector whose wealth allowed him to accumulate a significant art collection and bequeath $15,000,000 (remember that this was 1919!!) and his mansion on Fifth Avenue to establish the Frick Collection. One of NYC’s few remaining Gilded Age mansions, the neoclassical building, occupying an entire city block, houses masterpieces by artists such as Rembrandt, Whistler, Bellini, Vermeer and Goya. Walking through the opulent Frick mansion was beauty in itself but the most amazing part of this museum was that there were no ropes or cages to guard the art and therefore I was able to appreciate all the art from mere inches away. I have never been that close to a Rembrandt!! Thank you Mr. Frick.